Athanase de Charette Collection
A collection of historical material relating to Athanase de Charette, Papal Zouave officer and later commander of the Volunteers of the West.
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Historical Documents
Historical Documents
Primary Sources & Military Records
Explore surviving historical documents related to the Papal Zouaves and the men who served in their ranks.
Military Registration Rolls
Matricules
A matricule is a military registration roll recording individual soldiers and details of their service.
A Note on Accuracy
These records were largely maintained by Frenchmen serving in the unit. As a result, the names of foreign soldiers, towns, regions, and other places outside France may occasionally be misspelled or recorded inaccurately because of differences in language, pronunciation, and spelling.
The accuracy of the records also declined during the final days of the Papal Army in 1870, when events surrounding the fall of Rome made careful administration increasingly difficult.
Researchers should also be aware that a Zouave who completed more than one enlistment during different periods of service could sometimes appear more than once in the rolls. For this reason, individual entries should not always be assumed to represent unique soldiers when calculating the total number of men who served.
Matricule of the Franco-Belgian Battalion
The military registration roll of the Franco-Belgian Battalion, the formation from which the Papal Zouaves emerged.
Matricule of the Papal Zouaves — Tome I
The first volume of the surviving registration roll of the Papal Zouaves, documenting officers and enlisted men who served in the regiment during the defense of the Papal States.
Matricule of the Papal Zouaves — Tome II
The second volume of the Papal Zouave registration roll, continuing the record of the regiment and the men who served through the final years of the Papal States.
Matricule of the Volunteers of the West
The military registration roll of the Volunteers of the West, the corps formed from former Papal Zouaves who continued their service in France following the fall of Rome in 1870.
Archives & Periodicals
Additional Historical Collections
Additional archival collections and digitized periodicals containing valuable primary-source material on the Papal Zouaves and those connected with their history.
Bulletin de l'Union-Allet
Issues of the periodical of a Canadian Papal Zouave veteran association, published from 1873 to 1883.
View Issues →James Alphonsus McMaster Papers
A plethora of material on Canadian Papal Zouave Lieutenant Hugh Murray and his final days fighting in the Third Carlist War in the Zouave Battalion.
View Finding Aid →A Growing Digital Archive
Preserving the Historical Record
Papal Zouave International will continue to make important primary-source material available as additional documents are located, digitized, and prepared for public access.
Researchers, archives, descendants, and collectors who possess relevant historical documents are encouraged to contact us.
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